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One of the most frequently
asked questions I get is how to uninstall McAfee or Norton antivirus
and security products. Maybe its because trial versions of these
products were preinstalled when the customer purchased the computer, or
maybe you want to uninstall McAfee and install another antivirus
software product.
I've
even received mail from computer users trying to install an antivirus
product and they are told to uninstall McAfee before they can proceed
even though it appears McAfee is not running on the system.
I'm
also amazed at how many viruses attack McAfee and Norton products
especially and disable them so they can wreck havoc on the computer.
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My personal experience with
McAfee hasn't been positive. I installed McAfee on my wife's computer a
year or so ago. Everything seemed to work ok, although the antivirus
slowed down her system a bit. Then roughly a year later, I look at my
monthly credit card bill and see that McAfee has automatically billed
me for another year of service. I was planning on removing the software
and installing a free antivirus called Avast on her computer when the
renewal time expired. But McAfee decided to bill me. Needless to say, I
removed McAfee from her computer and called their billing department
ASAP. I was told by a friendly customer service representative they
autobill so customers wont be caught unprotected. Let's just say I like
to control my purchases a bit more than that and didn't appreciate an
automatic bill that I didnt expect. I requested a refund which I
received a week later and promptly uninstalled McAfee.
One other interesting tidbit, during the research for this article. I
ran the latest Hijackthis program, now owned by Trend Micro. Version 2
of Hijackthis has a few very nice features and I expected to get a list
of all the files McAfee was running in the background. Instead I
received the following message:
McAfee
blocked Hijackthis_v2 and tells me it contains a virus. Strange since
I've used Hijackthis on a daily basis and none of my antivirus products
have ever alerted me to the presence of a virus in it. McAfee claims
Hijackthis is infected with the W32/Generic.worm!p2p,
which according
to their virus database is a generic detection of worms that can
propagate through P2P file-sharing software (Kazaa, Gnutella, eDonkey,
Bearshare, Shareaza, Gnucleus, Limewire, Morpheus, Grokster, etc.). I
don't have any of these P2P file sharing programs installed on the
computer and use HijackThis on it regularly.
Just to be sure, I ran the Hijackthis_v2 file through several online
file scanners and none of them found a virus in the file. This makes me
question the accuracy of McAfee's virus database and file signatures.
Although you are welcome to draw your own conclusions about McAfee,
that false positive was enough for me to remove it from my computer and
install a free antivirus instead.
Follow
the
instructions below to safely remove McAfee security products including
their antivirus and firewall from your computer.
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Removal through the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel
In
many cases, you can simply remove McAfee products through the
Add/Remove Control Panel.
1) Click on Start, Click on Control Panel
2) Double-click on Add or Remove Programs
3) Find the Network Associates or McAfee product listed and click on
it. It should look similar to the following

4) Click on Change/Remove
5) You'll see a screen similar to the one below. Place a checkmark next
to each McAfee product you wish to remove and click Remove

6) You'll see a warning message like this one, click on the Remove
button

7) .The removal process will start showing each program being removed,
then it will ask to restart the computer. Go ahead and reboot after the
removal process is finished.

8) After rebooting McAfee should be removed from your system.
If for some reason, the normal uninstall does not remove it, I
recommend following the automatic uninstall instructions below to
remove McAfee security products.
Removing McAfee Automatically
McAfee has created an automatic removal program to remove the following
software products when the normal removal methods fail. It does not
work with Windows 98 or Windows ME. The
removal tool deletes all traces of the following products in Windows
2000 Pro, Windows XP Home and Professional, and Windows Vista.
- McAfee
Security Center
- McAfee
VirusScan
- McAfee
Personal Firewall Plus
- McAfee
Privacy Service
- McAfee
SpamKiller
- McAfee
Wireless Network Security
- McAfee
SiteAdvisor
- McAfee Data
Backup
- McAfee
Network Manager
- McAfee Easy
Network
- McAfee
AntiSpyware
Follow
these directions to download the McAfee Removal Tool and run it to
remove the above programs.
- Click on
the following link to download the MCPR removal tool
http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe
- Click
Save and save the file to your desktop
- Close
all McAfee Application windows you may have open, and double-click on
MCPR.exe to start the removal tool. Windows Vista users will have to
right-click on the file and select "Run as Administrator"
- After
the removal tool finishes, you should be prompted to restart your
computer.
- Once
the computer restarts, your McAfee product should be uninstalled.
- If
for any reason there appears a red X during the uninstall, go to the
following location for more advanced uninstall instructions involving
the registry.
http://tools.mcafeehelp.com/doc.php?siteid=1&docid=419397
Extra
Optional Steps
- Open My Computer, double-click on Drive C
- Double-click on Program Files
- Look for any McAfee product folders that
remain. Right-click on them and choose Delete
- Close My Computer and other folders
Other
Removal Instructions for Antivirus Programs
Uninstall Norton
Uninstall McAfee
Uninstall Avast
Uninstall AVG
Uninstall AntiVir
Uninstall Panda
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